Feeding Kids

1 in 4 children in San Diego County are at risk of hunger. In addition to the children served through our partner agencies, FASD distributes nutritious food items directly into the hands of local students and their families through our School Pantry and BackPack programs. The Feeding Kids initiative pairs critical food assistance with focused education on the role of fresh fruits and vegetables in a healthy, active lifestyle.

School Pantry Program

The School Pantry program helps alleviate child hunger in San Diego County by providing nutritious, healthy food to low-income students and their families. Distributions are consistently in the same locations at each campus, have routine distribution schedules, and provide access to nutrition education and additional community resources.

Meals for Minds

Special school pantries funded by Target, called Meals for Minds, provide nutritious food at local schools with the goals of preventing the consequences of malnutrition, setting a foundation for healthy eating habits and promoting school preparedness. Partnering with three elementary schools in San Diego, FASD provides more than 800 children and their families access to fresh food and staple items, nutrition education and CalFresh resources right where they learn and play.

BackPack Program

The BackPack program aims to meet the nutritional needs of food insecure children over weekends and school holidays, which results in improved student attendance, academic performance, attentiveness, classroom behavior and energy level. Typically, each child receives an easy-to-carry bag filled with nutritious staple items and two to three pounds of fresh produce when leaving school on Friday afternoon. Typically, each child receives an easy-to-carry bag filled with nutritious staple items and two to three pounds of fresh produce when leaving school on Friday afternoon. Food items are intended as supplemental resources for children and their families. FASD identifies and partners with schools that have free and reduced price meal rates of 65% or higher, striving to serve entire school populations rather than a select number of students.